1. Field of the Invention
The present general inventive concept relates to an inkjet image-forming apparatus, and more particularly, to an inkjet image-forming apparatus having a missing nozzle detection device that can detect a printing-failure region of an array inkjet head, and a method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional inkjet image-forming apparatuses form an image on a paper by ejecting ink from a printing head (e.g., a shuttle type printing head) that reciprocally travels in a perpendicular direction (i.e., in a widthwise direction) to a moving direction of the paper by being separated a predetermined distance apart from an upper surface of the paper. The printing head includes a nozzle unit on which a plurality of nozzles that eject ink are formed.
Recently, attempts have been made to perform high speed printing using an array inkjet head that includes a nozzle unit having a length corresponding to a width of the paper instead of using the printing head that reciprocally travels in the widthwise direction. In an image-forming apparatus using an array inkjet head, since the array inkjet head is fixed and the paper moves relative to the array inkjet head, a driving device of the image-forming apparatus using an array inkjet head is simple, and thus, high speed printing can be performed.
In the image-forming apparatus using the array inkjet head, the array inkjet head has a width corresponding to the width of the paper. Therefore, if there are any defective nozzles among the nozzles of the nozzle unit, a portion of an image corresponding to the defective nozzles cannot be properly formed on the paper.
In order to address such image degradation due to the defective nozzles, a method of automatically compensating for an image degradation of the image forming apparatus or a method of correcting the image using a nozzle adjacent to the defective nozzle can be performed.
Prior to performing a method of solving the image degradation problem caused by defective nozzles, it is necessary to detect the defective nozzles of the nozzles of the array inkjet head.
Accordingly, it is essential for the inkjet image-forming apparatus using an array inkjet head to have a missing nozzle detection device for detecting such defective nozzles.